Parenthood
by Shaunatheboss
Summary: When tragedy strikes, your life can be changed forever... But there is always hope... Rated T to be safe.


Parenthood

**Hello everyone! This is a mini project that I'm working on at the moment with my Beta reader, RAWN89. **

**It is a tribute to ****WybiE'z KidNapPer**** and her fic '****One Good Deed, Selfish Reason****'. Sonic and co. belong to SEGA.**

**Credit for certain lines and ideas belong to RAWN89 and Breathe Zenka. Thanks guys!**

**XXX**

A small creature ran through the underbrush of the forest that mostly made up its habitat on Christmas Island. The animal was running for its life. The reason: its village that it called home had just been obliterated and everyone and everything that was within the confines of the rampart wall was as good as dead or destroyed. A huge fire broke out and was now engulfing the surrounding forest of its home.

While the Mobian didn't look behind at the ruined village, or return to see if anyone was still alive after the attack, she only looked ahead with one goal in mind; to escape with what little she had left to live for.

The attack on the village was caused by a bunch of overlanders, the long-time enemies of the Mobians. A war had been going on for what felt like forever between them, but this was different. These humans wore leather suits and helmets and held guns and rocket launchers. They also wore a mysterious emblem on their uniform with the letter 'G' on it.

She had already seen her mate perish as he pushed her out of the way of some falling rubble, only to be crushed to death himself as he tried to fight off the soldiers that were raiding the village. It seemed as though they were looking for something.

He had already told her to leave prior to the attack, as he had sensed an ill omen, and usually, he was never wrong about these predictions.

She gazed down at the small bundle in her arms. Her only son, just a moon old, lay nestled in the blanket.

XXX

After several hours of running, the sun was starting to set over the horizon. She could still hear the sound of voices shouting commands and trampled foliage behind her. She knew there were many soldiers in pursuit. She slid down a muddy hill and carried on, buying time of about two minutes head start. But at a price, she had scraped her knees in the fall. This was going to slow her down significantly.

She decided to hide the cub, until she was ready to return at nightfall, once the coast was clear. Thankfully her kit was sleeping soundly and wouldn't alert anyone to its presence. She gently placed it in between the visible roots of a tall oak tree. It was protected by dense shrub growing all around it, so it concealed the infant perfectly.

Without a word, she quietly left and ran uphill, intending to divert the troops. She disappeared once she leapt into the undergrowth, never to return.

XXX

*A few hours later…*

It was near midnight when an agonizing, deep rumbling hunger pang awoke the child. When it realized that its mother was nowhere in sight, it started to cry and wail, terrified of being alone in the wilderness; its only desires were food, comfort, love and warmth. It was however not going to receive any, only the blanket provided some slight warmth from the cold, rippling breeze that flowed through the freezing night. But the kit would've preferred a warm, living body to snuggle into.

The pup's screams and cries would've attracted any predators within earshot. The G.U.N. troops had already taken care of them however.

The baby cowered in fear as he saw some branches start to sway close to him, as if trying to grab him, but only a gust of wind blew through them. This made him only cry more and tears flowed down his tiny face.

XXX

By the next night, the child's cries of hunger had significantly weakened. This time, it was slow cries with occasional whimpering. He was exhausted, famished and forlorn. He had already kicked off the blanket during one of his bawling episodes and now shivered continuously from the frigid evening. It was nearing its end.

XXX

*One week later*:

It was a perfect night and stars shone brightly above in the cool, black sky. This night also had a full moon that illuminated everything on the planet near it.

A large creature trudged through the charred undergrowth, looking around at all the burnt vegetation. The formerly green land was a depressing grey and black colour. There was hardly anything left of the forest. It now had the appearance of a graveyard with several hundred dead trees surrounding the area. He didn't know that a forest fire had occurred while he was away. It seemed odd because the recent temperature wasn't _that_ high for a bush fire to break out. He cursed and muttered something under his breath.

Christmas Island was known as the home to the most intelligent animal life forms on the planet. Now, there was nothing. No animal calls could be heard; not a single sound. He'd already seen the village, or what was left of it. He had come here to study the inhabitants.

He then heard a squelching sound when he took a step. The human gazed down and noticed that he'd stepped in a pool of blood. A small trail of the red liquid led away from it towards some incinerated, dead, black trees.

After following the red-tinted track for about a minute or so, he noticed that it led to a dead oak tree that used to be surrounded by several bushes. He didn't see anyone around, so he decided to have a closer look at where the blood trail ended. He bent down and shoved some of the scorched foliage away, revealing something that he never expected to see.

"Well, well. What do we have here? Erinaceous Europaeus." He smiled in amusement. "And a blue one, instead of brown. How very unusual." He muttered to himself, while rubbing his chin.

A small, baby hedgehog lay on its side on the ground. The infant's fur was a perfect cobalt blue. Diminutive, undeveloped quills, which looked like tiny thorns on a rose stem, were just starting to break free from the back of his head and back. There were no clothes on the baby; no shoes, socks or gloves. All the child had was a thin layer of fur covering only parts of his small body.

He then gently rolled the infant over to face him in order to see its face. The little one appeared to be cold; his body was curled up and his little tail lay limp to the side. Its eyes were closed and facial expression was blank.

He was dead.

The human's smile disappeared after noticing this. Sad as it was, this was nature. He had read that hedgehogs abandon their young at an early age to fend for themselves. Most don't survive their first year. There wasn't much information on this type of hedgehog species, however. The human believed that these were very misunderstood creatures and wanted to prove other overlanders wrong by acquiring adequate data on them.

He then picked up the small cobalt child. He cut his fingertip on one of the stubby quills. "Still sharp." The human muttered while wincing. The kit was so small, that its torso was just the same size as one of the human's larger hands. The human sighed, disappointed; it seemed as though none had survived. He then noticed a small piece of paper attached to the blanket. He picked it up with his free hand and read it.

"_Please take good care of Ogilvie Maurice Hedgehog, if I don't return. Make sure he grows strong._

_Aleena."_

He then looked around at the area again and took his eyes off the child for a brief moment.

That was when the tiny creature decided to kick out his legs and started to cry and scream so loud, that the scientist was so startled that he almost dropped him in surprise.

The pup opened his eyes for the first time, revealing them to be an emerald green colour. Tears rolled down the pup's muzzle as it screamed and squirmed in the doctor's hands. It mewled and whimpered in protest at being held like this and since he was hungry, he decided to lean forward and bite into the human's sleeve on his red jacket.

This took the larger creature by extreme surprise. It was only about a moon old; it shouldn't even be able to see or hear, let alone have the strength to lean forward. The doctor had the feeling that this pup was not an ordinary little hedgehog.

He then removed the jacket fabric out of the pup's mouth. Once he did this, he noticed that the kit was glaring at him with his face screwed up in concentration. This stunned the doctor.

"Maybe you're just the thing I need." He said. "I have a strange feeling that you'll be very useful to me."

With that, he walked back to his hover-craft with the crying hedgehog still in his arms wrapped in the blanket. "What's wrong with you?" He asked, mostly though to amuse himself, since babies can't talk after all. When he was back in his craft, he climbed in and placed the baby gently and carefully next to him. His smile couldn't be wider as he flew into the air, with the baby;

The last Mobian hedgehog in existence.

When he finally arrived back at his house on another island in the south, he stopped the craft just outside. The baby hadn't stopped crying during the entire journey and the human didn't know how much more he could endure.

"Look! There it is! We're almost home! Not much longer now!" He said as he cradled the mewling blue hedgehog in one arm, while pointing to the large structure with the other. He then decided to see if the baby would be quiet if he let it suck on a finger. He placed a small bit of his large index finger into the smaller hedgehog's mouth.

"OW!"

Only to draw it back out in seconds while giving a small yelp of pain and shaking his free hand to dull the stinging pain. The pup had bitten him, thinking that it was either a teat or a bottle. "Well! Well that's gratitude for you!" He said while placing his free hand on his hip. He groaned, shook his head in annoyance and then entered the structure, with the continuously wailing infant in his arm.

XXX

The human rushed through the doors with the infant still crying in his arm. He swept past all his robots that were keeping the house tidy. He made his way into one of his back rooms. When he pushed the door open, he entered his large kitchen. He then made a bottle of milk and fetched a warm, clean towel from the cupboard, took off the old, worn one and wrapped the clean one around the infant. He noticed that the old blanket was very cold and uncomfortable. After he did this, he then realized that no more crying could be heard.

The doctor moaned, relieved to finally hear the sound of silence. He slumped in a large chair, still holding the baby and got the bottle from the arm rest and placed it up to the child. It first resisted, tilting his head from side to side, making sure that the tip missed his mouth, unsure of what it was.

"Oh, come on!" The human groaned, too tired for this and weary from the eventful journey. "Wha-!"

The hedgehog suddenly grabbed the bottle and started to suckle greedily. "That's impossible! You're still too young to hold anything!" The human just stared at the infant, surprised. He was then lost in thought.

After a few minutes, the child started to slow down, feeling fuller with each gulp. He then noticed that the human had taken his eyes off of him for a few minutes. That was when he had an idea.

The human gasped when he suddenly felt something wet hit his face. The spell was broken. He gasped and spluttered and then looked down at the infant, who was now holding the milk bottle in the opposite direction to its face and squirting it at the doctor. The blue pup just started to giggle and laugh at this. He looked more content and healthy than before, especially with those rosy cheeks.

The larger creature was still in shock from seeing all this early development in strength and intelligence at such an early age. "Great! Just great! Only a month old and he already has an attitude! Just what have I gotten myself into?!" He grumbled mostly to himself.

He saw that the hedgehog was soaked in milk. His azure fur was darker in colour and had a few white tints here and there. The doctor decided that it was time for a bath since he was reminded that the kit was still dirty.

XXX

The human hoped that the pup didn't mind the water. He had just filled a basin with an inch of water. He first checked the temperature, and then held the pup up by holding his soft, furry underbelly in one hand and pouring a small amount of water on him with the other. His initial thought was that the kit would scream and cry, over this probably being his first bath.

So, it really surprised the doctor when he heard a squeal and giggle of delight from the small hedgehog. He looked really happy at being clean and having the dirt washed off. This brought a huge smile to the human's face.

Once he deemed the blue creature clean, he grabbed the towel beside him and scooped the pup out of the water. He then started to dry every inch of its azure and peach fur. Once he was finished, the hedgehog shook himself clean and looked twice his normal size as his fur puffed out.

The human chuckled lightly at his new appearance. "Come on, fur-ball, time for bed."

XXX

As the doctor carried the small azure mammal in one arm, he thought that he'd create a few nanny-bots to help him around the house and care for the little one while he was away at work. He was now weary and his shoulders slumped as he headed to his bedroom. He now felt like a real parent; he was so tired from worrying and working. But things could only get better now that he had some real company.

The human told himself not to get too attached, because he was only caring for it and that was all. His attention was brought back to the little one he was carrying as tiny hands grabbed onto his jacket. He then got the sudden urge to comfort the child. So he softly hugged the small hedgehog and earned a small purr of contentment and a wagging tail in return.

Caringly, he carefully petted the small hedgehog's quills, letting them smooth back. The baby seemed to enjoy it, as he rested calmly in his large arms. The human then gasped in slight pain and looked at his hand. Scratches played here and there on his palm. He then decided to get some white gloves and wear them whenever he touched the baby. He never imagined that these quills would create so much havoc for him in years to come. _'How are your quills so sharp?' _He mused to himself as he carefully ran a now gloved finger through the quills.

He then reached a door that automatically opened whenever he came near its frame. He entered the large bedroom where a massive bed was waiting. Comfort, style and order were some of the doctor's major concerns. His bed was huge and had several pillows on it. After scanning the room for a moment, he sat down on one side of the bed and placed the small hedgehog onto one of the soft cushions and observed how the little one emitted a very cute yawn while stretching out, before slowly curling up into a tiny blue ball. His small quills still jutted out like spikes, probably due to his animal instincts when protecting himself from other predators. Within a few moments, he was asleep.

The human then decided to get some rest too. At least for a few hours until the small hedgehog woke up looking for food.

So this was what parenthood was like.

XXX


End file.
